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Step 2:
Setting up a resource
pool
In a project we need resources - people, equipment, material -
to carry out the tasks. With MS Project you can control basically
2 aspects of resources:
- Availability
of the resources (to what extent and when)
- Costs
(how much do
they cost and when do the costs accrue)
Availability determines when resources can work on tasks
and how much work they can. Costs refer to how much money
will be required to pay for those resources.
There are 2 types of resources in MS Project:
- Work
resources (people and equipment that do the work)
- Material
resources
Examples for resources:
- Individuals
identified by name: Christian Maurer
- Individuals
identified by job title / function: supervisor, interviewer
- Groups of
people with common skills: electricians, students
- Equipment:
Camcorder, batteries
Exercise:
You will need the following resources for the project tutorial:
- Mick Jagger
(Project Leader), who can work full time (i.e. 100%) and has an
hourly pay rate of 35 Euros.
- Tina Turner
(Research Assistant), who works part time (i.e. 50%) and has an
hourly pay rate of 20 Euros
- Supervisor,
who can contribute full time (i.e. 100%) and will provide his
advice and feedback for free
- 1 Interviewer
(i.e. 100%) who charges 10 Euros per hour
- 1 Camcorder
for which the rental fee is 16 Euros per day (i.e. 2 Euros / hour)
In the following exercise you will enter the resources in the resource
sheet.
- To enter resources you have to switch from the Gantt-Chart view
to the Resource Sheet view. In the main menu bar click
on View and select Resource Sheet in the drop down
menu. Your screen should look now like the following illustration:
- Click in the first cell underneath 'Resource Name'
and type in the resource Mick Jagger and press ENTER
- In the Type field you can select either Work
or Material. A person - like Mick Jagger - is a work resource.
Hence select work.
- You can also enter Mick Jagger's initials MJ
- The Max. Units represents the maximum capacity of a
resource to accomplish a task. Maximum capacity of 100% means
that 100% of this person's time is available to work on a given
task, i.e. 8 hours per day. As stated above, Mick Jagger can work
100%.
- You can enter Mick Jagger's hourly pay rate of 35 Euros in the
Standard Rate (Std. Rate) cell.
- Proceed for the other resources of the resource pool likewise
and enter all resources in the resource sheet. Important:
The Camcorder, though, is regarded as a work resource,
because you have to pay the fee on a daily basis!
Checkpoint:
Click on resource
sheet to check whether you have entered all resources correctly.
If your resource sheet looks the same then you have successfully
set up a resource pool for this project. Well done!
You can now move on to Step 3 in which you learn how to adjust the
individual working times of resources.
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